The stoplights at Magazine Street and Henry Clay Avenue remained dark Friday. They were blinking at Nashville and St. Charles.
But there was some literal light at the end of this proverbial tunnel. Crews were busy making repairs on Magazine and Henry Clay after the lights had been out for weeks.
It's something New Orleans City Councilman Joe Giarrusso said residents pleaded to get fixed sooner.
"We have a light out Uptown at a major intersection,” he said during last Friday’s budget hearing for the Department of Public Works. “It's taken a month to get that fixed.”
Deputy Chief Administrative Office Ramsey Green, who oversees the DPW, said he could relate to the gripes.
"We know about that problem in particular. We took my kids to the zoo last weekend, we got stuck. We're like, 'Oh, God. Jeez,” Ramsey told the council.
But that intersection isn't the only one in need of repairs.
Stoplights have been blinking for weeks along Magazine at Washington and Jackson avenues where drivers and pedestrians had near misses with one another.
While the stoplights at Magazine and Washington were blinking Friday morning, they were fixed by sundown, according to City Hall and businesses in the area. The stoplight at Jackson would be broken for at least another month, a spokesman for Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office said.
Across town at Esplanade and North Claiborne avenues, lights were also blinking.
“We've been complaining and complaining and nobody's done nothing about it,” said Tracey Bissell, a waitress at Li'l Dizzy's Cafe.
According to City Hall, electronics in control cabinets at the intersections went bad, and they all must be replaced.
The one that used to sit at Henry Clay and Magazine was loaded into the back of a truck, and a replacement was been installed. The city said those stoplights would turn on again once Entergy New Orleans restored power.
Bissell said that can’t happen soon enough. She said anyone crossing intersections with broken stoplights are taking an unnecessary risk until repairs are made.
"There's always accidents there (at Esplanade and Claiborne) anyways, but with that light being out for over a week-and-a-half, it's just horrible,” she said.
The state Department of Transportation and Development said repairs would begin there Saturday morning.
Emails from from the Department of Public Works provided to WWL-TV from Giarrusso's office said that part of the delays on Magazine are due to finding the replacement control cabinets.
Green also told the City Council last week that any delays are for the reason you'd expect.
"What we're doing is fiscally managing the city's funds and the state and federal funds we're entrusted with and deploying them correctly,” he said.